By- Khushi Bisht
Tarek Fatah, a Pakistani-born Canadian journalist, and the author has been one of Pakistan's most outspoken critics, having been born in the very same nation. Tarek has been criticizing Islam and its radical religious teachings for years. One of the main targets of his criticism is Hadith, which is an Islamic term for documentation of the talks and acts of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad.
He claims in an interview with The Jaipur Dialogues that Hadith is irrational and lacks a chronology. He claims that a large chunk of it was authored by men after the Prophet's death and that Muslims have been mindlessly obeying it ever since.
According to a Muslim, the Prophet Mohammad is the most ideal example of humanity. Everything he did or said should be emulated by Muslims. They believe that the Prophet slaughtered 700 Jews with his own hands, though no such occurrence is mentioned in any of the Jewish texts. According to Tarek, Muslims have made up this story that killing Jews is the way of the Prophet, as there is no proof to support this claim.
ManuScript in Arabic on paper, Mecca, Saudi Arabia.Wikimedia Commons
He claims he went to Medina and looked over all of the sites and documents to check whether there were any mass graves of the 700 people slain by the Prophet, but to his amazement, there is no mass burial. As a result, there is no evidence that the Prophet massacred Jews, it's a fabrication that Muslims take great pride in. He discusses all of this In his book "The Jew Is Not My Enemy."
Tarek Fatah has spent his entire life debating the Hadith. He has now received surprising assistance from none other than Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The Saudi Crown Prince stated in an interview with 'Al-Arabiya' that the constitution and legislation will be based only on the Qur'an, with many hadiths being removed.
The powerful heir to the Saudi kingdom has discarded Hadiths, the backbone of Islamic culture. This hit all radical Islamists like a tonne of bricks.
The Saudi Crown Prince went on to reference hadiths, which are documented sayings of the prophet's words and deeds claiming that countries have died as a result of religious extremism. He also claimed that there are several Hadiths that have no connection to the Qur'an because they were penned 250 years after the Prophet's death. As a result, any penalty that is unrelated to the Qur'an will be rejected.
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The powerful heir to the Saudi kingdom has discarded Hadiths, the backbone of Islamic culture. This hit all radical Islamists like a tonne of bricks.Wikimedia Commons
Speaking of moderation in the execution of Islamic laws, he challenged Wahhabism, a belief system founded by Mohammed Bin Abdul Wahhab, an 18th-century Saudi preacher who dominated for a long period in the Kingdom and internationally after spreading it for years across the Islamic world.
He said extremism is a severe concern and it is forbidden in all areas, and that the Prophet Muhammad predicted in one of his hadiths that extremists would emerge one day, and if they did, he would order them to be killed. Anybody who takes an extremist stance is a felon who will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, he further stated.
According to MBS, Islam requires reform, and Islamic legislation sources must be examined. The prince's declaration creates a separation, a foundational split with Wahhabism, and a genuine shift in intellectual direction. He has promised to return the nation to moderate Islam and has appealed for international assistance in transforming the fundamentalist kingdom into an open-minded society that encourages people and attracts foreign investment.